Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

My trip to the Valley of the Sun last week was filled with so many top-notch memories which were capped off by my wife taking me to a Phoenix Suns game that we enjoyed with some great friends who live out there. In short, I am just blown away by my wife's thoughtfulness on my birthday especially after having taken me to a New York Knicks game last year! While I relish the thought of attending a baseball game on my birthday, enjoying a quality hoops matchup in great seats is always welcomed and this year my wife upped the ante by gifting me a sweet Phoenix Suns hat I rocked to the game and am featuring for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post! Would you believe this is the only the time I've written about an NBA hat on this blog? Well neither would I but I actually searched the archives and only found this Brooklyn Nets "City Edition" post so now I do believe it! Even though the Suns were founded in 1968, my brain is focused on those 1990s teams all the colorful ...

In last week's post I stated this week would be "somewhat related" to Spring Training with the inspiration being I am attending a f amily event in Phoenix this weekend although I hope you're not disappointed in it not being a proper Cactus League type cap because my intention from the outset was to feature this "reimagined" Phoenix Firebirds custom colorway from Hat Club! I decided a while ago the Phoenix Firebirds logo has a firm place among my favorites and this orange-drenched variant from Hat Club shoots that ranking way up high in the stratosphere for a San Francisco Giants fan like myself.  I should mention I've had this cap since 2018 which I know because not only do I have my order receipt for it, but looking back at the metadata of these photos I can see they were taken with the phone I owned at that time! As a San Francisco Giants fan, I love an orange and black MILB batterman and I want to express again how thankful I am for Hat Club releasin...

The free agency hot stove reached its boiling point in the past week or so with announcements of Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, and Cody Bellinger finally signing contracts with teams ahead of next season. We are a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers arriving at Spring Training, so hopefully, your team has made moves to give you hope going into 2026! My San Francisco Giants have not made any significant roster moves, but I sense Tony Vitello will be impactful as our skipper, and I am not giving up on us making a play for Framber Valdez, as the teams closely linked to him besides us are the Orioles, Cubs, and Mets. Each of those teams has made a big splash either through free agency or trades, so I'm keeping the faith. As a New Yorker, I am happy for Bellinger's return to the Bronx and even happier for Bichette coming to America (ie. Queens), which, combined with the news of Carlos Beltran being voted into the Hall of Fame earlier this week, serves as the inspirat...

After a few restful weeks offline I am happy to be fully back in the swing of things here with my first Fresh Fitted Friday selection of 2026 being a Buffalo Bisons cap done up in a "Buffalo Sabres" exclusive colorway from Hat Club. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen my National Hat Day post yesterday in which I celebrated New Era's flagship MILB team with a photo of my 2003 Buffalo Bisons snapback which features the logo they wore from 1998-2003. I should note though the flying baseball which is present on this week's cap was added to the design the following season. I love how Hat Club tied in the Sabres colorway however it would also be neat to see a Buffalo Braves inspired release on this logo too! If you're interested in the lore of the former Buffalo-based basketball team that was once part of the ABA, I recommend checking out the excellent fan site  BuffaloBraves.Net I have stated many times that I am not really a "patch guy" but...

I selected the "Tri-Star Plate" alternate worn by the  Nashville Sounds for the  final Fresh Fitted Friday post of 2026 as a nod to my favorite write-up of the year which, was  1978 Nashville Sounds retro cap  in which I discussed the logistics of Nashville being a front-runner in the contention for an MLB expansion team . That post was perhaps my lengthiest one thus far however I felt compelled to carefully detail the steps involved in that effort while this week I am focusing on that potential team's name. If incorporating "Stars" in the moniker is a must, " Tri-Stars" would be a stellar choice as it properly p ays tribute to their iconic state flag although I prefer the way  "Nashville TriStars"  reads. There's a sports memorabilia company called TriStar Productions which could put a kink in my proposal but should there be no copyright issue there, calling themselves the TriStars would certainly avoid any legal entanglements with the...

We are inching toward Christmas, and I am very much looking forward to spending time over the holidays with loved ones, where we hopefully eat many memorable meals together. I I mentioned the "Feast of the Seven Fishes" in my  Gwinnett Stripers post a few weeks ago , and while it is not a tradition I grew up celebrating, it is one that I enjoy taking part in as an adult. AAfter all, I cannot imagine a seafood lover not wanting to enjoy a plethora of dishes where fish is the star. My family is planning on going out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve, so I am going to make a push toward ordering crab soup dumplings, shrimp rice noodle rolls, siu mai, and ideally a few more oceanic delicacies to get that number up to at least seven for the night. In my Chesapeake Oyster Catchers post ahead of Thanksgiving , I called out that birds and fish are two prominent themes seen on the logos of caps I wear, and this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection falls into the latter category as...